Micheál Martin denies drugs cartels could exploit navy weakness

That was the assessment of Michael O’Sullivan, ex garda assistant commissioner and former head of the EU frontline agency tasked with combating the Atlantic cocaine trade.

Mr O'Sullivan told the Irish Examiner this week: “If the Irish navy has half or quarter the assets they used to have, from a law enforcement perspective they are only a quarter or half as effective.”

Mr Martin admitted that the naval service "clearly" is not "optimally effective".

However, he added: “I think we need to be careful of those assessments. 

It's not at the level we would want it to be, but there are various forms of surveillance and intelligence and cooperation between member states across Europe and indeed like-minded countries all over the world. So it's not a simple matter.

“We're all inter-dependent. It's not that we depend on other countries. We work with other countries, and we provide intelligence to other countries just as much as they will provide intelligence to us in terms of drug trafficking or criminal operations."

Mr Martin's comments came as Spain had its largest ever cocaine seizure, 9.5 tonnes, found in the port of Algeciras in a refrigerated container among a cargo shipment from Ecuador supposed to have held 1,080 boxes of bananas.

Police have not yet named some of the gangs they understood were due to receive the drugs, but the massive seizure is expected to lead to speculation they included the Kinahan crime cartel.